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Introduction: What is VK and VK social media App?
VK is a social media app that was created in Russia. Initially, it was known as VKontakte, which translates to “in touch” in English, but it is now more commonly known as VK.
VK is one of the most popular social media apps in Russia. It has around 400 million users and, as of March 2022, was the 4th most popular website in Russia. Additionally, according to SimilarWeb, VK is the 16th most popular site globally (source).
The VK app allows users to share their thoughts and feelings with friends, family, or anyone they choose to follow on the platform with status updates, photos, videos, and links. It’s essentially the Facebook of Russia.
How To Create A VK Account
We found that it was very easy to create an account on VK. You have to enter a name, phone number, and password and then wait for your validation code. You can also sign up without giving them your phone number.
Registering for an account is a straightforward process. You can have the VK registration form filled out in less than 2 minutes.
When setting up your account, you get to fill in a detailed profile so that your new network knows who you are. You can also find fields for other details, such as whether or not you smoke or your occupation.
You can also list personal priorities in different categories: family, children? Career, money? Leisure, entertainment? Fame or influence? Duty or public service?
Why Should You Care About VK?
VK is Russia's largest social networking service and ranks 2nd to Facebook overall. It also has higher rankings than Instagram or Twitter, at 5th place globally (source), dwarfing other Russian social networks.
VK is a social media giant in Eastern Europe but less known in North America and Western Europe because its users are primarily in Eastern Europe.
The pure volume of people and information on the platform leads to a significant opportunity for what we can tell users of the VK app and what we can learn from them.
This is an opportunity you can make the most out of on Hunt Intelligence. Our GEOINT tool lets you plot geographical information from VK posts and photos on a map - speeding up and streamlining social media investigation. Sign up or Get in touch to find out more.
VK App: Features & Functions at a Glance
The website has a Facebook-looking layout and colour scheme. It also has the same services as most other popular social networking sites, such as messaging and browser-based games.
We have added a summary of some of the main features and functionality below:
- Messaging: VK messages are usually exchanged between 2 VK users or a group of 30 individuals. When messaging in a group, you can enter either the user ID of one person or their email address. When someone has been added, you can send up to 10 attachments to them via the mobile app, including photos, audio files, videos, documents, and maps to any of the several million active users.
- Likes: When you like something on VK, your friends will not see it on their feed unless you select “share with friends”. For example, when you like something on LinkedIn, your connections will see “X has liked this” on their feed - this does not happen on VK.
- Privacy: Many people use social media sites to share pictures, videos, thoughts, etc. It’s not uncommon for these sites to offer certain privacy settings so you can decide which types of content are visible within the network. For example, you can make an individual post viewable by only your friends on VK or protect a whole page from being seen outside the website.
- Advertising: VK has a good reputation for being good for advertisers due to the number of a select demographic (i.e. Eastern Europeans) you can find there. Like Facebook, VK collects a lot of information about its users, including where they live, their work history, and even their water consumption habits. This vast amount of data allows VK to offer highly detailed targeting options for businesses to target audio and video ads towards Russian users.
Conclusion
VK is one of the largest and most influential social media networks globally. So if you want to understand events, public sentiments, or trends in Europe or beyond, look no further than VK.
VK and social media, in general, can be invaluable sources of user-generated information - particularly from Russian speaking users. This can include trending topics or topics that are happening/have happened. Social media is a great way to find out about these things quickly and easily. Social media is also a great way to find out what people think and how they’re reacting to an event.
If your job involves analyzing social media activity, the Hunt Intelligence Team would like to speak to you - feel free to contact Hunt Intelligence Founder Louis Tomos Evans directly.
